BEARS' BUMPER STICKER: DON'T FOLLOW US, WE'RE LOST

What seemed so coherent is now just so much incompatible litter. You can look at it from all sides and still not see what it means.

"It's back to the drawing board," agreed Dave Wannstedt.

One man's art is another man's garage sale. And a little late, as well.

"This is the time of year you're looking to get some momentum," Wannstedt said. "As tough as the Minnesota (overtime) loss was, even when you don't get a `W' in the win column, I didn't think we went backward as a team."

It's back to October at least, back to when the Bears had a quarterback question, back to when they couldn't stop the run, back to when they couldn't run the ball themselves. Back to when tomorrow looked to be the next year beginning with the number 2.

Where the Bears are is before where they were before they got to where they thought they were going.

In other words, the Bears are a team in serious retreat. Obviously, the Bear glory wagon didn't see the sign warning that backing up can cause serious damage.

This is not the way to approach the playoffs, like a handcart looking for missing parts.

"We will get into the playoffs," Wannstedt said. "It all starts tomorrow with the Rams."

Predictions even from the coach? For a team that has done nothing except cause its tender constituency to hyperventilate prematurely, the Bears have seemed a bit cocksure ever since beating Miami.

Alonzo Spellman's guarantees of victory have managed to inspire both the Vikings and Packers to prove him wrong, not that the Packers need surplus inspiration for the Bears.

But losing 40-3?

To Green Bay? With the local cheese breaths booing their heroes for not rubbing it in at the end, taking field goals instead of touchdowns, not humiliating even more thoroughly the team from the town big enough to have elevators and its own orchestra?

While former Bears cornerback Keshon Johnson was spiking his interception in front of the Bear bench to show he could hold a grudge, the Packer faithful were showing they could carrying a tune, serenading the Bears with that South Side favorite, "Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye."

Small consolation for the Bears to gladden the smallest fan base in sports. Only if they had lost to the Andorran dart team could they have inspired less joy.

But now the Packers have every right to consider themselves as playoff-primed as the Bears, maybe more so, for at least they are pointed in the right direction.

The only tiebreaker the Bears can win is probably against Arizona. Tied with any other wild-card contender, the Bears are pretty much your basic table condiment.

It may matter not if the Bears make the playoffs, as they still should do with one victory in the next two weeks. If the kind of division showdowns the Bears have played the last two games aren't enough to incite the appropriate frenzy, then the playoffs aren't likely to be enough, either.

"You've got to play at a different level this time of year," Wannstedt said.

The Bears look like a team satisfied to have exceeded expectations, that the difference between 8-8 and 10-6 is not a measurement they consider worth taking.

Wannstedt said the Bears weren't equipped to get into 30-point shootouts with teams. They're more like a 17-14 bunch.

This means the defense has to play better than it brags, that the Bears have to get turnovers, that Kevin Butler can't miss, that Steve Walsh doesn't give the ball away even once, that 27 is the running back's number, not the running backs' total.

"At this time of year," Wannstedt said, "you don't sit back and philosophize. You do what you can to get in."